sorry for the delay guys. I've been extremely busy stringing at shop, club, home and tourneys, but will be posting a thread in the next few days. Ron and Nate were both extremely gracious with their time, and very nice guys. I want to make sure I complete a good thread and didn't want to just rush it.

Kot, painters tape.

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Thanks Drak.
Are you sure? Because tape does not look like it is painters tape - it looks smooth and clear, like a synthetic type tape.
Thanks again man. Yeah, i am busy stringing too - tennis becomes more popular...or i just get a better reputation around town

sorry for the delay guys. I've been extremely busy stringing at shop, club, home and tourneys, but will be posting a thread in the next few days. Ron and Nate were both extremely gracious with their time, and very nice guys. I want to make sure I complete a good thread and didn't want to just rush it.

Hey everyone. I spoke to Ron Yu of Priority One Stringing and Customization service, and the guys have agreed to give me a "behind the scenes" look at their work while they are in Miami for the Sony Ericsson.

Priority One consists of Ron Yu, Nate Ferguson, and Glynn Roberts. For those of you who are not aware, Priority One provides stringing and customization for players such as Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Djokovic, Tsonga, etc, etc, etc.

If you have any questions/comments you would like to me to ask when I meet up with them, please leave them here, and I will do my best to get answers for you. When I am done, I will start a thread with photos/vids, answers to your questions, and of course a report on the behind the scenes.

Thanks!

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Dear Drak! May be you may answer. I did ask the following question once:"My son of 13 y.o. Playing tennis and after few tests we found out that he prefers guts-poly hybrid and best of all tour bite and b5e.this summer I am going to send him to play few tournaments with a group, where I don't think that he or smb may care about hybrid stringing. So my question is if it is possible to find a good and similar substitution to above setup, but using one string for a full bed". But to get an answer I'd like to simplify it: what is your recommendations for competitive junior who used to nat gut-poly setup to use in a full bed. I need to buy a reel for him before he goes on the trip. So please advise. He plays with Volkl O10L customized with a few grams at 12,9,3 hours and leather grip. He is all court player with an instinct to go forward and was tought to finish points from inside of the court and be patient at the baseline. I do string mostly myself for him, but on a trip his racquet will be strung like often on junior tournaments without additional care, so to give him nat.gut or any hybrid which is very sensitive to be strung correctly is worthless IMHO. I may get any string reel so you free to recommend anything you count the best. He will play mainly on red clay. If any additional question you may have to give an advise I am ready to answer.

When asked about racquet specs in order of importance, Nate and Ron agree that most important is the swing weight, followed by the weight and ultimately balance, although length of a racquet plays a vital role that can’t be overlooked and could at times drastically change all of these. Of course, there is also flex and lastly the feel of a racquet, which is personal to each player and how they perceive it.

To clarify things. If the flex is wrong, there is nothing one can do to make a racquet "feel" right. Also, racquet length needs to be correct at the start of the final stages of customizing. All the different parameters need to work together to get to a final end product. However, if something needs to change slightly due to whatever restrictions are placed upon me, I'm willing to change balance by a few millimeters rather than change swing weight or total weight.

To clarify things. If the flex is wrong, there is nothing one can do to make a racquet "feel" right. Also, racquet length needs to be correct at the start of the final stages of customizing. All the different parameters need to work together to get to a final end product. However, if something needs to change slightly due to whatever restrictions are placed upon me, I'm willing to change balance by a few millimeters rather than change swing weight or total weight.

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Ron thanks for the response, but how can you change balance without changing either SW or total weight? I think you could move the weight to change balance without changing TW but the SW will change (although it may be so slight the PPTC can't detect it.) All the more reson to match SW, BP, TW, and length. You could add or remove weight to change balance and keep the SW the same but TW changes then. You could also change the balance point by increasing or decreasing total length but then your SW should change also.

I have never played around with a PPTC but how much can you move the balance point without changing the SW +\- 1 cm2kg?

A consequence of stencil inking is that the ink gets on the balls. I suppose you might try old-school gut shellac (if you can find any) and coat your strings after stencilling, but that seems a bit much. I suggest either forgo the stencil or just get used to it.

I'm using an ektelon H model. The two last outside mains are always looser than the rest of the mains. I know its because of the tie off knotts. Do you guys pull the outside last mains tighter than the rest of the mains. I know your using Bab machines but maybe you could give me some advice regarding this problem.

I'm using an ektelon H model. The two last outside mains are always looser than the rest of the mains. I know its because of the tie off knotts. Do you guys pull the outside last mains tighter than the rest of the mains. I know your using Bab machines but maybe you could give me some advice regarding this problem.

I'm using an ektelon H model. The two last outside mains are always looser than the rest of the mains. I know its because of the tie off knotts. Do you guys pull the outside last mains tighter than the rest of the mains. I know your using Bab machines but maybe you could give me some advice regarding this problem.

Thanks
H.

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Like Kot stated, you typically want to go up a few lbs on the tie offs. That said, remember the outside strings (especially mains) will always feel looser, even though they are not.

Like Kot stated, you typically want to go up a few lbs on the tie offs. That said, remember the outside strings (especially mains) will always feel looser, even though they are not.

Good luck.

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AHAHAA! Drakulie, you have no idea how much crap I hear about those so called loose outside mains. You nailed it as always.
I have not been posting much lately but, always reading.
Nice to hear from you.

AHAHAA! Drakulie, you have no idea how much crap I hear about those so called loose outside mains. You nailed it as always.
I have not been posting much lately but, always reading.
Nice to hear from you.

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Nice to hear from you as well, and glad to see you are still active. Like you, I am constantly hearing about the "loose" outside mains. After a quick explanation, the customer "usually" is able to comprehend the physics. LOL.

I was stringing a Fisher Pro Tour Extreme racket today and because these rackets skip 8H&T is used a Yonex loop on the outside mains where the 8th main is ran before the 7th which is the last main and tied off at 6T. I used a 4 lb increase on the 7th mains. When I do not use the knot function on the last main I can see where the main that is tied off has a thicker diameter after drawback. Increasing the tension 4 lbs gsve me about the same diameter on 6th-8th mains (1.20 mm, 1.20 mm, and 1.19 mm on one side and 1.21, 1.20, 1.20 mm.) the diameter of the 17 g string before tensioning is 1.24 mm. as you can see all 6 outside mains tensioned and tied off are 1.20 +/- 0.01 mm.

This experiment was done with 17 g Polylon and results may differ from string to string but you may want to play around with measuring the diameter of the string after you tie off to find the best tension increase for the tie off if that's what you're looking for. I used 4 lbs because that is the default value on my machine.

EDIT: Even though the outside mains were not the last mains strung they were easier to move around because there is no outside string to hold them in.

EDIT: On the crosses I did not use the knot function and see the same diameters for the top and bottom three strings. But the crosses tend to have much less drawback than outside mains.

I was stringing a Fisher Pro Tour Extreme racket today and because these rackets skip 8H&T is used a Yonex loop on the outside mains where the 8th main is ran before the 7th which is the last main and tied off at 6T.

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I use this same procedure on several racquets when doing two piece. Aero Pro Drives, Pure Drives, Several Wilsons, etc. Never knew people started referring to this as a "Yonex Loop".

It's being referred to as the Yonex Loop as its used in the stringing instructions for Yonex Badminton rqts. The reasoning behind it is that the outer mains would put so much stress on the thin badminton frames that it could break it, especially stringing tighter e.g. 28+ lbs. By doing this method it reduces the stress. A different reason than we use it for tennis rqts.